This project is a return to my childhood home, an abandoned schoolhouse, to create art from the things my mother hoarded over the years and explore questions she can no longer answer in her current mental state. This is a journey of self-discovery. This is my story:

When I was 11, my family moved into an abandoned schoolhouse in rural Colorado - an area called Thatcher. My parents attempted to renovate the space and turn it into a livable, artistic home to raise children. We didn't have plumbing, central heat, or full electricity for the 6 years I lived there. My parents' hoarder tendencies grew out of control, isolated from society with a huge building to fill.

In May of 2013, my mother was in a bicycle accident and suffered severe brain damage. I came home to help take care of her, and realized I needed to take care of things within myself. After nearly a decade away, I decided to come back to Thatcher, spend time alone in the building, and create mixed-media art from the materials my parents hoarded over the years. Disconnected from phone and internet, I was left to my own devices in the deep silence of the prairie. I used creation as a way to process and own my story and to come to terms with my mother's accident. Much of the work from this experience is focused on the cycles of life and death, order vs. chaos, and the woven memories of my experience that have contributed to who I am today.